Biggest Best Life

5 Science-Backed Hacks to Boost Your Energy, Focus, and Happiness

• Lauren Chapnick • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Five science-backed hacks can significantly boost your focus, energy, and happiness through simple daily practices. These practical strategies help conserve mental energy and maximize your "green zone" time for optimal brain health and productivity.

• The 27-3 method prevents multitasking brain drain by setting a timer for 27 minutes of distraction-free focus followed by 3 minutes of movement
• Think of your mental energy like a cell phone battery, regularly checking your charge level and implementing "charging" strategies when needed
• Use five-minute movement bursts to increase brain blood flow and boost mood-enhancing neurotransmitters
• Practice the red-yellow-green light tool to match your activities to your current energy level
• Transform your sleep quality with a mindset shift - visualize waking refreshed and express gratitude for whatever sleep you get
• Combat decision fatigue by planning for "tomorrow you" - prepare outfits, meals, and essentials the night before
• Small, consistent changes create momentum toward greater happiness and energy

Text the word BESTLIFE to 833-681-6463 to join my text community and receive weekly doses of motivation to help you live your biggest, best life.

Books by Hal Elrod (The Miracle Morning): https://miraclemorning.com/books/?_gl=1*1hz00o*_ga*MTYzNzk2Mzk0Mi4xNzU4MDY1NTk5*_ga_1J8DY9YF82*czE3NTgwNjU2MDEkbzEkZzAkdDE3NTgwNjU2MDEkajYwJGwwJGgw


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Lauren Chapnick:

Save that brain power. Stay in the green light zone for as long as you possibly can and see what happens. Watch your life change.

Announcer:

Welcome to Biggest, Best Life, the podcast that dares you to dream big, live louder and step fully into the rockstar life you are made for. You're not too late, You're right on time and we're just getting started. Here's your host, Lauren Chapnick.

Lauren Chapnick:

Hey friend, welcome back. This is Lauren Chapnick and you are listening to Biggest Best Life. Today I have five science-backed hacks to increase your focus, energy and happiness that I'm going to share with you. I am a registered nurse and I'm super interested in the science of happiness. I came into nursing a little bit later in life and that one decision to go back to nursing school was a total game changer for me and it set me on this path, this wave, this momentum of change, and I completely transformed my life and became a much happier, fulfilled person a much happier, fulfilled person. And it is my mission to share that with you and bring you more fearlessness and release that inner badass, to just get out there, trust your gut, get off your butt and make the changes in your life that are going to bring you that joy, that happiness that you so deserve. So if that resonates with you, text the word best life, the word best life, that's one word best life to 833-681-6463. It's totally free and what will happen is you'll get an automatic text back from me inviting you to join my text community and all it is. It's a weekly text where I send out a little dose of motivation, inspiration, a little hack, a little tip, a little quote, something that just gives you that reminder that you are capable of making any change at any age to go after the life that you want to live your biggest, best life. So let's get into today's episode. I've got five hacks to increase your focus, energy and happiness, increase your mental well-being, your brain health because that's what it's all about and you may have heard some of these before. I didn't invent these, but you may hear me say something today that just hits you different than somebody else has said it to you in the past, and it is my hope that you can walk away with at least one tangible change that you can implement today to make yourself a little bit happier.

Lauren Chapnick:

Okay, let's get into it. Number one the 27-3 method. Now, this is based on the Pomodoro technique, which is 25 and 5. Now let me explain. If you have a task that you are sitting down to do, whether it's something at work, whether it's a creative task, maybe you're a writer and you're sitting down to write that day Science and studies at Stanford prove that task switching and multitasking decreases your IQ temporarily and increases your mental fatigue. So you may think, oh, I'm really good at multitasking, but science proves to us this is not a good thing. This is not good for our brains to be switching back and forth between tasks. We all do it. We're trying to get something done and we hear an alert go off on our phone. We hear the inbox on our email go off and we read that and then, when we get back to what we're trying to do, we see that we have to start all over again.

Lauren Chapnick:

Here's a hack that will help you 27.3. Get yourself a cheap little kitchen timer. I use this one. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see Set the timer for 27 minutes. Clear your workspace, clear it off. Put your phone far away from you. Turn the alerts off. Put it in the next room, if you can.

Lauren Chapnick:

The only thing you want in the area where you're working is the one thing that you are working on Set your timer for 27 minutes. For that 27 minutes, your only job is to focus exclusively on that thing, free of distractions. The timer goes off. You reset it for three minutes, you get up, you move, you move your body and you do not stop moving for those three minutes. Now, I picked 27 and 3 because 27 is a lucky number, but you can do whatever you want. You can do the Pomodoro technique and do some research on it and see 25 minutes on five minute break. Make up any number you want. You want to do what you're going to do. Maybe it's 15 and two, maybe it's 37 and six, I don't know. You have a set amount of time that you are sitting down, focused on the task, and then you get up and you take a break Because research that same research also shows us that stepping away and taking short, planned breaks boosts our focus and our creativity. So when you come back, your brain is like you've given it a little dose of a superpower to be more focused. When you come back to that thing, 27-3 is what works for me. Let me know what works for you If this resonates with you. If you have a tough time focusing, try this Close off everything, focus for 27 minutes on three minutes off, and I guarantee you your productivity is going to skyrocket.

Lauren Chapnick:

Number two think of yourself like a cell phone battery your body, your mind, your spirit. Think of it like a cell phone battery. Ideally, you wake up, you're at 100% During the day. We're going to slowly drain 100% During the day. We're going to slowly drain. Well, what happens to a cell phone? Sometimes you pull out your phone and it's at 5%. And it's the morning and you think what the heck happened? I need to give this a little charge. I need to get through the rest of the day. Sometimes our cell phone battery like it or not, it gets drained much sooner than we'd like it to. Or, worst case scenario, we wake up at 40% because of whatever happened the night before and we'll get to the nighttime routine in just a minute.

Lauren Chapnick:

But let's talk about this. This is a mindset technique, this is a self-awareness tool to constantly check in with yourself and say where am I at right now? Am I at 40 percent? Am I at 10 percent? Am I at 95 percent? And we all have to get through our day right. We all have to thrive and we have a million things that we need to do. We have families, we have jobs, we have things that we do in our spare time. We have to conserve our energy and get through the day.

Lauren Chapnick:

So if you discover that you're at 30%, what are some tools you can have up your sleeve to give yourself that little micro dose charge to get yourself back up to at least 80% to get through the rest of the day. Come up with your own tools that you can have up your sleeve. I'm going to share two with you. The first is the five-minute movement burst. Now, tony Robbins, who we all know and love, says the best way to change your mental state is to change your physical state, and research from the National Institute of Health says that there are health benefits for your brain with physical activity in as little as five minutes. Don't tell me you don't have five minutes for your brain health. To give yourself that micro boost of energy. You don't have to have a gym membership. You don't have to have a gym membership. You don't have to have anything. All you need is maybe a fun song to put on and move, or a road to walk on, or two feet to put one foot in front of the other and move your body for five minutes. What's gonna happen? Well, you're gonna get a boost of serotonin and dopamine, which are going to increase your creativity and your focus. And second, you're going to literally increase blood flow to your brain. And what's that going to do? Well, it's going to decrease cortisol levels, to decrease your stress, to bring down your blood pressure, to stabilize your blood sugars, to do all of these things for your physical health and your mental health in five minutes.

Lauren Chapnick:

Another one that I love to use is mindfulness. Mindfulness is a muscle, your mindfulness muscle, and what I also love is a good habit stack. And what I mean by habit stack is taking a habit that you already do and stack a habit a healthy habit with it, so that you can associate one with the other. Let me give you an example. This is one I heard the other day from one of my favorite nurses, jana Holterman. She suggested mindful hand washing. Now, as a nurse, I wash my hands hundreds of times a day, or I sanitize, and I can take that time to practice a little mindfulness. I can do a little breath work, and this doesn't take anything complicated. All you need to do is inhale and exhale, and the only thing to keep in mind is that exhale should be longer than the inhale. That's it. So maybe you inhale for two and you exhale for four every time you wash your hands. Now, you don't have to be a nurse to do this. I sure hope you wash your hands during the day at least a few times. You can practice this mindfulness muscle technique and see how that works for you, see if that gives you that little micro dose charge that you need to get yourself back up to near 100% or at least higher than you were before.

Lauren Chapnick:

Number three, and this goes hand in hand with number two, with thinking of yourself like a cell phone battery, one of my favorites. It's called the red light, yellow light, green light tool, and if you are at let's say you feel like you're at 20% charge, that would be the red zone. So you can kind of come up with your own system. But for me, anywhere between zero to 25%, I'm in the red zone. My red light is on. Anywhere kind of in between 25 to 70-ish percent, I'm in the yellow zone, and anything 70 to 100% green light is on. So what does that mean?

Lauren Chapnick:

Okay, if I know that I am in the red zone, what are different things that I can do in the red zone? I may not be able to perform at the same function as when I'm in the green zone or even the yellow zone, but there are still things that I can do. So I have my list of tasks, of things that I can do both with work and things around the house. So I have my list of tasks, of things that I can do, both with work and things around the house, but also with self-care. What can I do when I am in the red zone? Instead of zoning out and binge watching Netflix or like doom scrolling on your phone, what is something that you can do when you are in that red light zone? You can lay down and listen to an audio book. You can maybe do some very light movement to get yourself going. You can fill in the blank. What are some things that you can do to care for yourself or to still be productive when you are in that red light zone, and can you predict when you're going to be there and can you kind of get ahead of it to at least live in that yellow to green zone most of the time?

Lauren Chapnick:

Some of the examples that I use if I'm in the green light zone, that's when you're at your peak of flow energy. You're in your peak flow state. That is when you can do your most highly creative tasks. That's when usually for most people, that's in the morning. That's when you can do your heavy workouts. That's when you can do your big to-do tasks around the house. That's when you can write for four hours. That's when you can create those new ideas. That's when you can create those new ideas, that's when you can brainstorm with your team, that's when you can lead the team meeting. That's when you can give your signature talk.

Lauren Chapnick:

The green zone is what we all strive for, but our circadian rhythms don't work that way. We all have a natural dip in the afternoon. The question is can you get ahead of it? Can you give yourself those micro doses of energy? And can we limit our red light zone time? Can we try? Can we strive for that green zone and hold on to it for as long as we can green zone and hold on to it for as long as we can? Can we at least be in the yellow zone for the rest of the day and only dip into that red zone when we are just really tapped out?

Lauren Chapnick:

The point behind all of this, the idea, is not to judge ourselves. It's not to be perfect, it's to be prepared. It's to know okay, I'm in the red zone. Maybe I've felt like I'm in the red zone all day today. That's fine, I'm prepared. Let me pull out my list, make your lists, build your lists on your phone. Have a notebook where you have your list of what you can do when you're in the red, yellow and green, and do those things. Listen to your body Really, tune in to your consciousness, be aware of where you're at. Don't judge, just acknowledge and do what you can with what is Number four have a sleep routine.

Lauren Chapnick:

Now, we all know we should go to bed early. We should get eight hours of sleep. We know that sleep is good for our brain health. What can we do to get the best sleep that we can, to get the most sleep? Well, let me tell you that studies at Harvard have found that the mindset that we have around our sleep actually impacts the activities the next day. And that's where this hack comes in, because I like to keep things very practical and very simple for you. And having a sleep routine is incredible and it's something we should all strive for. But things happen, life happens, our kids get sick, or we stay up later than we should watching a show, things happen and we have to get up at six or whatever time, and sometimes we look at the clock and we say, oh no, it is 1 am. What do I do now? Well, instead of beating yourself up and saying, well, shoot. I am going to be a zombie tomorrow. What have I done? I hate myself. I can't believe I did this. Try this.

Lauren Chapnick:

Hal Elrod wrote a book called the Miracle Morning. Highly recommend it. I'll put the link in the description of the show the show notes. And in this book, the Miracle Morning, he talks about the power of a morning routine and he offers this sleep hack for moments like this when you realize you are not going to get the eight hours that you need. Try this Close your eyes. Try this. Close your eyes. Visualize yourself getting up in the morning feeling completely rested, rejuvenated, ready to take on the day and do. I am so grateful for these five hours of sleep I'm going to get. I know that these five hours are going to give me the energy that I need to do what I need to get done tomorrow. Visualize that happening. Feel in your body what it's going to feel like to get up in the morning and feel energized for the day and be grateful for those five hours of sleep. This is all that I need to get me through for tomorrow. These five hours are going to be quality hours that I will use for tomorrow.

Lauren Chapnick:

You can brainwash yourself into believing that your sleep is enough. Now is this going to work night after night? Of course not no, but we find ourselves in these situations sometimes and then the next day try to get back on the routine. Now, we all can't be perfect at night, and this is not about judging yourself, and this is not about perfection. This is about attempting to make one change. Can you do something tonight to wind yourself down, to prepare yourself for sleep? Sleep routine is key to brain health, happiness, energy focus, to brain health, happiness, energy focus. But that sleep hack I can't tell you how many times I've used that, especially when I was in nursing school and I stayed up so late studying and I had an exam the next day. But it works for everybody, for every situation, if you use it well.

Lauren Chapnick:

Number five plan for tomorrow's version of you Set yourself up for success the next day. If you can eliminate as many decisions as you can the day before, do it. Save your brain power. Because the research is there. It shows us that decision fatigue is a very real thing. We have a limited pool of energy for making decisions and the more decisions we make throughout the day, the faster it drains and by the evening forget about it. We're fully depleted. We cannot we literally cannot make any more decisions. So how can you set yourself up for success for the next day? How can you plan for tomorrow's version of you? Again, this is not about perfection. This is about success Doing one thing, making one change, and seeing how it impacts the next day.

Lauren Chapnick:

Let me give you some examples. Can you plan and know what you're going to eat the next day, the day before? Can you do that, maybe as part of your night routine? Can you have your coffee set up with the mug and the water, so all you have to do is press that button? Can you have your breakfast set up? Can you pack your work lunch and your work snacks the night before? Can you do it for your kids?

Lauren Chapnick:

How many of you out there have kids and the morning sucks. The morning, everybody's rushing around looking for their library books, looking for their homework. Try having one thing set up and then see how that works. Have their backpacks ready to go. Find that library book with them the night before. Have their shoes lined up by the door. Have their outfit picked out. Eliminate as many decisions as you possibly can. Save that brain power. Stay in the green light zone for as long as you possibly can and see what happens. Watch your life change what happens. Watch your life change. It doesn't take that much effort.

Lauren Chapnick:

It's these little hacks, it's these little tweaks that set the momentum. Because I guarantee you, if you try one of these and it works for you and you see a positive change, a difference, it's going to inspire you, change a difference. It's going to inspire you. It's going to make you want to do more. It's going to give you that dopamine hit and you're going to just crave more and more. So, again, this is not about judging ourselves and this is not about being perfect. This is about striving to make little changes, little tweaks, to make ourselves better, to go after the life that we really want, to improve our mood and have that energy that is contagious to those around us.

Lauren Chapnick:

So I invite you to try all of these. Which one are you most excited to try? Let me know If you're watching on YouTube, drop it in the comments, send me a message on Instagram or, better yet, send me a fan mail and we will read it on the air. You can click the fan mail link at the top of every episode on biggestbestlifecom. Join me there. Thank you so much for listening. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you spending your time with me. If something resonated with you today, I invite you to share this episode with a friend who you know could benefit. Give us a follow, a like, a subscribe, a rating, a review. All of those things really truly help bring this show into the hands of people who need it and who want to live their biggest, best lives. Make today awesome and trust your gut. Get off your butt. Make those changes and I will see you the next time. Bye-bye.

Announcer:

Thanks for tuning in to Biggest Best Life. If today lit a fire in you, follow, review and share it with someone who needs the spark, and remember to text BESTLIFE one word to 833-681-6463 to get Lauren's weekly dose of motivation straight to your phone. Now go out there, live boldly, love wildly and never settle for less than your biggest best life.